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Christmas Day on Call

WALSALL, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire - Dec. 21, 2012) - New research from HomeServe, the home emergency specialists, indicates that more than 2.6 million people, 5.2% of the UK workforce1, will be working this Christmas Day, with a further 6.9% on call to come in at a moment's notice. Among them are large numbers of medical and care professionals, emergency services, security guards, farmers and the service industries.

Nearly half of Christmas Day workers have a positive outlook on working through a national holiday - surprisingly, 41% of respondents who are working on December 25th said that they will enjoy their day's work, with 47% agreeing that they liked the feeling of being able to help people during the season of goodwill. 46% cited the "great atmosphere" that makes Christmas a more special time to be working. Comparatively, only a third (33%) said that good overtime pay motivated them to work through the holiday, with 4 in 5 (82%) accepting that it was part and parcel of their job.

HomeServe Memberships CEO Jonathan King said: "There are many essential services that the nation can't afford to be without on Christmas Day - including tradesmen to respond to home emergencies. We at HomeServe would like to thank our dedicated staff for helping to ensure that our customers don't have their celebrations spoiled by having to go without power, water or heating."

Notes to editors:

All research conducted online by Canadean Consumer on behalf of HomeServe, December 2012 among a representative sample of 2,000 UK adults.

1UK working age population is estimated to be 50.9 million (ONS, 2011).

About HomeServe

Every minute a HomeServe engineer comes to the rescue of a British household.

With over 2,700 directly employed and sub-contracted engineers, HomeServe is a national emergency home repair service backed by a 24 hour claims handling and repair network.

HomeServe's new tradesmen service provides households with access vetted tradesmen who are qualified to carry out hundreds of different jobs around the home.